Before dawn, Yang Wanchun had already gotten up from the bed and then came to the study to handle official duties in his clothes. It had been ten days since the last attack of the Tang army was repelled, but there was no movement in the Tang army camp. Although this gave him plenty of time to rest, he was also worried that the Tang army was brewing some conspiracy. After all, the Tang army would not give up after only one setback.

In the fierce siege ten days ago, although Yang Wanchun led his army to repel the attack of the Tang army, the city of Anshi also suffered huge casualties, especially the moment the city gate was blown up, the morale in the city almost collapsed. Fortunately, Yang Wanchun had great prestige in the city and was in charge of the battle at the critical moment, which aroused the morale of the soldiers. Otherwise, they might have become prisoners of the Tang army now.

"Although the Tang army's attack was repelled, the losses in the city were too great. There were more than 3,000 people killed in the battle, and more than 5,000 injured. Moreover, the weather is hot now, and many wounded wounds are inflamed, red and swollen. In the end, only two or three of them can survive!" Yang Wanchun said in a low voice again, with endless sorrow on his face when he spoke.

There were only 30,000 defenders in Anshi City, but later they accepted some of the defeated soldiers who fled back when Gao Yanshou was defeated, barely reaching 40,000 defenders. However, this battle reduced the number of defenders in the city to 30,000 again, and most of the casualties were the most elite soldiers in the city. This made Yang Wanchun feel both distressed and a little scared. If the Tang army really did not care about casualties and took several more siege battles like this, he would probably not even be able to find the people under his command in the city in the end.

However, compared with the casualties of personnel, what made Yang Wanchun the most headache was the consumption of materials in the city. Last time he deliberately used a fraud, making the Tang army think that the turtle oil in the city was used up. As a result, at the last moment, the Tang army burned the Tang army's siege cars with turtle oil, and almost trapped thousands of Tang soldiers who were attacking the city top to death. Unfortunately, the Tang army later blew up the city gate, causing the Tang army on the city wall to rush to the gap and escape.

Although he used a trick on tincture oil last time, in fact, when the Tang army's siege car was finally burned, it was already the last little tincture oil in the city. Now, let alone tin oil in the city, there is no more lamp oil and edible oil. Moreover, there are not many rolling wood-beating stones used to defend the city. He has already started to demolish the houses in the city and transport bricks and stones to the city. However, when the Tang army blew up the city gate before, he had to use a large amount of bricks and stones to block the gap. In this way, even fewer bricks and stones can be used on the city.

"Father, the breakfast is ready, you can eat something first!" At this moment, Yang Wanchun's son Yang Chong suddenly opened the study door, then placed the breakfast in the tray on the table, breakfast is very simple, it is nothing more than a bowl of porridge, one meat and one vegetable dish.

"Dear, how about the loss of food and grass in the city?" Yang Wanchun had just picked up the bowl, but suddenly remembered something, so he asked Yang Chong that when the Tang army attacked the city, he used a lot of turbulent and gunpowder bullets, causing a fire in the city. Not only did some houses burn down, but some granaries were also burned. He didn't care about statistics before, so he left Yang Chong to take charge of this matter.

"Don't worry, my father has all been scattered in various places in the city before. Even if one is destroyed, the loss is not great. According to my previous statistics, the food in the city is still very sufficient, and we can eat it for at least two or three months." Yang Chong replied immediately. He was Yang Wanchun's eldest son and the legitimate son who will succeed the position of the city lord in the future, so now he has begun to help his father handle some affairs in the city.

"The Tang army will not retreat so easily, so we must also prepare for a long time to station. As for the assistance from Pyongyang, we cannot have too much hope, so we should save some food." When we said this, Yang Wanchun paused for a while and then said, "From today, except for the soldiers guarding the city, the food of other people has been reduced to 80%. My food quota will be reduced by half. In the future, a vegetarian dish is enough for breakfast!"

"Father, you don't have to!" Yang Chong couldn't help but say with great concern when he heard that his father had actually reduced his food quota first. As the city lord, Yang Wanchun handled extremely complicated affairs every day. If he couldn't eat well, he was really worried that his father's body would not be able to hold on.

"Since I am the city lord, I naturally have to do my best, otherwise why should I convince the public?" Yang Wanchun said with a serious expression at this time. He did not ask his son to do the same thing as he did, but at least he had to understand this truth.

Hearing his father say this, Yang Chong didn't dare to say anything else. He nodded immediately, and then after his father finished his meal, he took it down himself. However, Yang Wanchun put down the official duties in his hand, then stepped out of the city lord's mansion and walked towards the city wall. This was also his habit. Regardless of whether the Tang army was moving or not, he would go to the city wall every morning to observe the situation outside the city.

The city of Anshi has been fully in charge. The people in the city have handed over their food and go to fixed places to collect food every day. When Yang Wanchun walked on the street, he could see the people receiving food everywhere. However, not only did these people have no complaints, but when they met him, the city lord, they all showed respectful expressions and saluted him one by one, and he nodded slightly to greet him.

Speaking of which, Yang Wanchun's family has served as the city lord in Anshi for generations. By the time he was passed down, it was already the third generation. Moreover, their Yang family has always been known for loving the people as their children. In the past, every time there was a famine, the city would release food and provide disaster relief, and in winter, people would organize patrols everywhere. Because when it was too cold, people often freeze to death in Liaodong. Whenever they encountered people who were starving and frozen, they would be taken to the city to settle in a centralized manner.

In addition, the Yang family is fair in their work and never oppresses the people, so Yang Wanchun's family has a very high prestige in Anshi City. Even if the army outside the city is approaching, most of the people believe that their city lords can lead them to defeat the Tang army.

The city lord's mansion is located in the center of the city. At first, it was very normal around it. However, as Yang Wanchun got closer to the city wall, the houses on both sides of the road began to be abnormal, and some places had traces of burning. These were all left by the Tang army during the attack before, especially the turbulent oil bombs and gunpowder bombs thrown in with a catapult, which even destroyed a lot of houses near the city wall. For this reason, Yang Wanchun had to move the people to the center of the city as much as possible. After the remaining houses were demolished, the bricks and stones were moved to the top of the city.

After crossing this blank belt that had been demolished, Yang Wanchun finally came to the city wall, and then climbed the city to look into the distance. The weather was very hot today, and the scorching sun above his head made people feel panicked. However, the more severe the weather was, the happier Yang Wanchun was because this weather was really not suitable for siege. After all, the heavy armor that the Tang army wore was so thick that it would be possible to have heatstroke without a few steps.

The Tang army camp was too far away. Yang Wanchun took out a silk bag from his arms and carefully pulled out a pair of telescopes from it. Every day when he saw this pair of telescopes, he couldn't help but sigh at the power of the Tang Dynasty. Only the Tang people could make such telescopes, and it is said that everyone in the other army had them, but in his Anshi City, he, the city lord, had one, and this one was rewarded to him when King Rongliu was alive.

At that moment, Yang Wanchun put the telescope in front of his eyes and looked carefully in the direction of the Tang army. He found that the Tang army did not seem to have changed much. Although it was not very real to see with the telescope, he could vaguely see that everything in the Tang army camp was as usual, and it seemed that he had not recovered from the last failure.

"Huh?" But at this moment, Yang Wanchun suddenly discovered something abnormal. It was not in the Tang army camp, but on the east side of the Tang army camp. There was actually a Tang army doing something, but it was too far away and I couldn't see clearly. However, there were a large number of people on the other side, and it seemed that there were tens of thousands of people. So many people gathered east of the camp, which made Yang Wanchun feel very busy.

"Is there anything unusual about the Tang army these two days?" Yang Wanchun observed for a long time, and finally put down the telescope and asked the guard general next to him. As the city lord, although he came to the city head every day, it was impossible for him to stay here for twelve hours, so he usually reminded the guard general to pay attention to the movements of the Tang army opposite at all times, so as not to miss anything.

"There is no exception. It's just that the Tang army came to collect corpses under the banner a few days ago. Because the number of people is very small, we didn't care." The guard replied immediately. After each war, if both sides do not decide the winner, they will send a team to collect corpses and bring back their own corpses, mainly for fear of the decay of the corpses and causing plague. The teams that collect corpses are generally not large and there will be no conflicts with each other. This is also a conventional rule on the battlefield.

"Apart from this, is there any other movement in the Tang army?" Yang Wanchun frowned when he heard this, and then asked again that the Tang army sent an army of tens of thousands of people out of the camp, and what was doing on the east side of the camp. There must be something strange about it. And ten days later, the Tang army should recover. According to his estimate, the Tang army will soon attack Anshicheng for the second time.

"This..." The guard general couldn't help but show a thoughtful expression when he heard Yang Wanchun's questioning. After a while, he suddenly said, "I remembered that two afternoons ago, there were a few people dressed in Tang army generals who circled the city wall twice in the distance, and finally stayed in the southeast corner of the city for a long time, and then returned to the camp. Someone came out again yesterday, but he went straight to the southeast corner and stayed for a long time before returning."

Yang Wanchun was also stunned when he heard the report from the general. As the city lord of Anshi, he naturally knew the situation of the entire city. When he heard the three words "southeast corner", he felt as if he was struck by lightning and immediately guessed what the Tang army was going to do!
Chapter completed!